URA-plank
The URA is to blame for many of the ills in the city. * The URA needs to liquidate properties in a creative, long-term way so as to get rid of its holdings but not depress the market further. * I favor the idea of a complete sell off of the URA, or at least the bold approach to that direction. We need to minimalize the URA as much as possible in the years to come. * The URA needs to get out of all business deals where the private marketplace should be operational. Question, Should we disband the URA? Some say it would be best to liquidate properties, refocus development on neighborhoods and hand over econimic development to Allegheny County rather than have the URA work for just the City of Pittsburgh. Without the URA, the city wouldn't be able to sell off on tax liens, right? Isn't there an advantage to having a public entity taking control of property? To liquidate the property holdings and to liquidate the URA are on the same track but two different destinations. To unravel the URA is going to take some serious work and many years. One pressing risk is that a big sell off would greatly increase supply and the demand for every other bit of property (like our homes) goes down the drain. The root problem comes to view when we see a public organization sustain itself, and not work for the people. And, in good times, the URA would be much unlike what it does now. For example, I'd love to see a public organization help first-time home buyers. I'd love to see a public organization help seniors who are too frail to move themselves be able to make a move in a calm, controlled, no-rip-off kinda way. Many seniors would like to get to a different place in their lives -- and out of their house -- but can't. So, the URA could have a role in the ends of the spectrum of home ownership -- early and twilight. The other big hurdle is the fact that when the URA and other public money goes into various project types -- then all private money vanishes. The marketplace gets a shock of poison from the URA's being there at all. Nobody can compete with the URA -- so they just turn to leeches. For example, Parking Garages are in high demand -- but -- they won't come with private development money (generally) because the Parking Authority does them and charges below market prices. We just had a strike as well. In the end, authority money and public money can't trump the marketplace. So, the cronies win. So, the rich get richer. So, the poor get poorer. So, deals get to be more complicated by design. So, government does more and more development -- and less and less to govern. Then developers buy governmental officials or just go into that business themselves. We need to get onto the "right track" and then we can wonder about where to get off as a destination. Links * URA category: Platform_Planks_from_Mark_Rauterkus